During the past few weeks, we’ve been sharing thoughts from some of the dancers participating in those performances. Today we shift to Nicole Duffy, a board member and répétiteur for the Foundation.
Nicole Duffy is a director, teacher, and répétiteur for The Gerald Arpino Foundation. Hailing from San Juan, Puerto Rico, she danced for the Joffrey Ballet both in New York and in the original company in Chicago. She has degrees from Columbia University and NYU, and writes about dance for The Massachusetts Review, Eye on Dance, and others. Nicole is currently an adjunct professor of dance at Barnard College, and the Program Advisor for the Upper Division of Ballet Hispanico School of Dance in New York City.
Nicole’s thoughts and reflections:
What is your personal history performing Arpino works?
My personal history performing Arpino works began with my first season with the Joffrey in New York. I was cast in Italian Suite and Light Rain right away, and after the move to Chicago I also danced Birthday Variations, Kettentanz, Suite Saint-Saëns, Viva Vivaldi, and Trinity, when he began reviving more of his works for “All Arpino” programs. And of course his Snowand Flowers in Robert Joffrey’s Nutcracker—so beautiful and exhilarating, like so many of his works.
I’ve also been teaching Arpino ballets since 2010 and see that as a sort of performance too. I’ve staged Birthday Variations and Light Rain many times, as well as Kettentanz, Viva Vivaldi, Suite Saint-Saëns, and Confetti. I’ve also taught Joffrey/Arpino repertory for master classes nationally and abroad, and Arpino’s ballets figure prominently in my Joffrey dance history classes. Most recently, I staged the iconic Light Rain on the Ballet Hispanico Pa’lante Scholars, performed at Chelsea Factory in New York City last spring.
How would you describe the Arpino style? What are some distinctive elements of his choreography?
Arpino’s style is many things. He was such a chameleon and so creative in his approach to dance that it’s hard to describe a singular Arpino style. Valentine and L’Air d’Esprit are stylistically different universes. But if I had to summarize the feel of his ballets, I would say there is a freedom in the movement, sometimes an explosive energy, or a sleek, seductive way of eating up space, or at times a soaring romantic passion or simmering, quiet melancholy. His choreography encompasses a wide range of emotional experiences through a unique blend of neoclassical and modern vocabularies and is musically rich—from Yves and Webern to Tchaikovsky and Rossini to rock music. As a choreographer, Arpino had self-awareness, sincerity, and lack of pretension. There is an unmistakable down-to-earth humanity and a connection to viewers that feels different from anyone else’s work—to watch and to dance!
How does it feel to be a part of the Arpino Centennial Celebration?
I am working with Cory Stearns and Hee Seo of American Ballet Theatre on Sea Shadow, assisting both Trinette Singleton and Paul Sutherland (who danced it in the 1960s) and Valerie Madonia and Tom Mossbrucker (who danced it in the 1980s). The process in the studio with the various generations is wonderful to witness. That kind of transgenerational oral tradition is the kind of legacy work that is a big part of the Foundation’s mission. There is so much value in these exchanges, ideal for preservation of dance, that cannot be approximated by any other method.
For Valentine, I am helping to archive the process as Meg Paul, the associate artistic director of Complexions and former Joffrey ballerina, works with her son Charles (first assistant principal bassist with the Cleveland Orchestra) and former Joffrey dancer Fabrice Calmels and Complexions dancer Larissa Gerske. Charles will play the part of the Referee, a special hybrid role of musician/actor. What a remarkable and fun duet/trio!
Last but not least, I am working with Daniel Alejandro Guzman on the male solo in Birthday Variations, one of my favorite Arpino ballets, which I stage frequently. I am part of the jury at the Universal Ballet Competition (founded by former Joffrey ballerina Lissette Salgado and her husband David Lucas) where Daniel won the highest honor at the Grand Prix: the 2023 Robert Joffrey and Gerald Arpino Award. He is a technically brilliant, versatile, and beautiful dancer, and as it turns out, I know his teacher in Venezuela, Martha Ildiko, who studied at the Joffrey School in the 1980s. Full circle!
The Arpino Centennial Celebration has been years in the making, and as a board member it has been an honor to be a part of the planning and execution of this event. It is a labor of love that I cherish. Jerry’s ballets gave me so much as a dancer, and I am thrilled to continue passing on the valuable and transformative experience to a new generation: his magic changes positively transform dancers at all stages of their journey.